Cold Feet: Learning from ‘mistakes’ of last series

It’s just more than two two years since Cold Feet returned to a warm reception from critics and fans alike, following a 13-year hiatus.

For TV viewers of a certain age (ahem), it was like reuniting with old friends as we navigated the pitfalls of middle age together – teenage kids, relationship woes, menopause, you name it.

And all done, of course, with the humour, pathos and warmth we’ve come to expect from the acclaimed ITV comedy drama.

But something didn’t feel quite right about last year’s follow-up series, which saw Adam (James Nesbitt) split with partner Tina (Leanne Best) after an affair with a colleague, while Pete (John Thomson) and Jenny (Fay Ripley) renewed their wedding vows following marriage problems.

“I think the first series [of the returning Cold Feet, in 2017] was back with a bang, as it should be after 13 years pre-production – no excuses,” jokes Thomson.

“It was a bit of a phenomenon.”

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The troublesome trio have plenty to ponder in the first episode

“The second [series was] not great. The difficult second album. [It was] ill-prepared. It was a very slow burner. It dragged its feet and then found its way and that showed.

“We were supposed to do eight [episodes], we didn’t, we did seven,” he explains.

“It wasn’t a bad series, don’t get me wrong [but] they’ve learned from the mistakes of [series] two and they’ve gone to six [episodes]. They’ve consolidated everything. This is why this series is the absolute strongest. We’ve got some gold on our hands.”

“I’ve always felt the British people are creatures of habit. We did Monday [when the show returned in 2017], that was a triumph. We had a nice slot,” he explains.

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Matthew has a new girlfriend – a chip off the old block

“Then we found out [it would be moved to] Friday [for last year’s series] and we went, ‘What?’ If it’s not broke, don’t fix it!

“It was always Sundays for the original six [series] and they said: ‘You can’t have Sundays, Victoria’s got that now… then they went ‘Monday’, great, Monday worked and then they went ‘Friday’.”

And guess what? Series eight, which airs sometime next month, is back on Monday nights again.

“Now we’re back to Monday! Please just leave it alone!” says Thomson.

Series eight opens with the Cold Feet gang preparing for a wedding – we won’t spoil it by revealing whose, but Adam appears to be on the lookout for love (again) and there’s trouble brewing between David and his son Josh.

Thomson says the Cold Feet team have changed the way they write the series this time around – using the US “writers’ room” system – which has had a big impact.

This is where the show’s creator – in this case, Mike Bullen – and the other writers collaborate together on the plot and scripts, as opposed to Bullen writing alone.

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Thomson says the show has “put Manchester on the map”

Thompson explains how it worked with US sitcom Friends.

“They’d assign characters to writers, it would be like, ‘You’re Joey, you’re Phoebe…’ and if they didn’t get laughs on the first show they would record the same show [again] and rewrite in-situ. [They] work through the night.

“I said that’s the way it has to work because Mike was working alone and bringing in his homework. I said you need to consolidate it and sit together and then bash it out together. It’s a brilliant working environment.”